UPDATE (1:25 p.m., Dec. 12)—A reported armed robbery early Sunday morning, in the unit block of Durban Court in Perry Hall, remains under investigation, police said.
Outside the Silver Spring Station Apartments complex, at about 2:20 a.m. on Dec. 9, two men who appeared to have handguns under their shirts approached a woman and two men in their mid-20s, according to a police report.
The men ordered the victims to hand over their purse and wallets. They then stole a purple purse, an iPhone, $100 in cash and a black leather wallet, before running away, the police report showed.
The suspects were described as a 5-foot-10 white male, 180 pounds with reddish blond hair, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt; and a 5-foot-11 white male, 180 pounds, wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with blue lettering.
Anyone with information about the robbery is urged to call the White Marsh police precinct at 410-887-5000.
Editor's Note: This post has been updated to reveal further information about the suspects. Maryland Patch managing editors have updated the policy with which our reporters will use race in suspect descriptions. - Sean Welsh, Associate Regional Editor, Maryland
Story rewrite..."A certain number of people robbed a different number of other people." There we go. Perfect news. Won't insight (or enlighten) anyone.
Can you please explain to your readers why the policy is to never mention race in criminal descriptions?
If you continue kowtowing to PC dogma then any detail such as neighborhood, time of day, description of vehicle, retailer (customer demographics), sir names or even the actual crime are subject to censorship to avoid being socially offensive.
a) presenting a story that may be of interest to the community, a.k.a., "be afraid"? or b) trying to elicit responses that may help solve this crime, "here is what the initial, admittedly not under oath, description of the bad guys was..."?
Patch's policy is to withhold race in police descriptions unless there is unique characteristic that would identify the individual—such as a birthmark, tattoo or otherwise. In this case, there wasn't such an accompanying description given. Thanks for reading, Sean sean.welsh@patch.com
Example: "Schultz is described as a white female, 5'6" and 145 pounds, with gray hair and glasses."
Of course, this does not make Patch's policy any less onerous.
Thank you for replying and citing the Patch's policy but you didn't explain the logic for it. If the Patch takes it upon themselves to censor critical information from stories to meet an agenda then why should I trust any of your stories? Do you expect us to believe this is the only example of self-censorship? So was this policy developed by The Patch Network or mandated by your parent company (AOL/Huffington Post)? If it started with the Patch Network then the question still stands....WHY?!
Sean Welsh Associate Regional Editor, Maryland
I am certain that any small probability of finding/assisting in the capture of criminals like this has increased for the future. We can't look out for what we can't identify.
See that wasn't so bad now was it. Jesse Jackson can't come and get you until he gets after the City Paper for disclosing the race of every killer and murder victim each week in their paper. Check it out, you'll see it deep in the middle of that paper.